(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Thank you to the people who responded to the Girl With Dragon Tattoo post - rather vigorous and interesting discussion. Learned all sorts of stuff and changed my mind about a few things as well.

Hot day, stayed indoors. Crampy. Ugh.

Watched True Blood - which was fun. Every season - it's the same, starts out interesting, drags a bit in the middle, takes off like gangbusters towards the end, slows down a little, then takes off again, with a cliff-hanger. Ball appears to have the soap opera structure down to an art form - that's exactly what soap operas are like. King Russell? LOL! He goes on network news - rants and sounds incredibly crazy, pissing off everyone, kills the anchorguy, then turns with a smile and states: "And now, Tiffany with the Weather." (I can't remember the girl's name.) Oh and Howard's girlfriend Becky on Big Bang Theory has gotten a job on True Blood as Hutch's new love interest. Didn't realize she was so short, which makes me realize how short everyone on Big Bang Theory truly is. She can't be more than 4 foot. Either that or Jessica and Anna Pacquin are a lot taller than I think they are. I know Alexandra Skarsgard is 6'5 - the same height as my brother. (No, we're not Scandinavian, German - yes. Also Irish, Welsh, Anglo, French-Belgium and Scotch Irish. )

Also watched Supernatural - everything but the final episode. Enjoyed it, but I have issues with it. Women either are monsters, die, or get brain-washed in this thing. It's getting old. How hard would it have been to have the nerdy guy in the basement be a gal? Come on. You know there's a problem when every time you see a female character you start betting yourself - okay how long before she's kidnapped, betrays the hero, turns out to be a monster, or dies? Actually I keep betting myself on how long she'll stay alive in the show. Right now the longest living recurring female character may be Lisa. We'll see how long that lasts. She's a mother and Dean's ex-girlfriend one true "female" love (we all know his real one true love is either Sam or Castiel). Which means her chances for survival aren't high. Granted now that he's removed himself completely from her memory and from her life...she may actually live but never pop up onscreen again. Women only survive on this show if they ride off into the sunset never to be seen again.

Comments

[liliaeth]

Thing a lot of people seem to ignore about Supernatural though, is that it's not that every female character ends up dying, going evil,...
but that every recurring guest character whether male or female ends up dying, going evil or has something bad happen to them.

It's not a gender thing, it's that Supernatural loves to kill off peoples fave recurring characters. And that if a character is set to return, regardless of their gender, you'd better start hoping this won't be the ep they'll get killed off in.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I'd agree, except there are no female characters in the cast. The one's who are featured in the cast are killed or evil, actually both.

Also all the female characters in the series fall into the following categories:
1. recurring guest : killed. Examples - Jo and Ellen, the hunter who worked with Sam, the female angels (with possible exception of Lisa - who can't defend herself and is always shown as either damsel, mother, or demon.)
2. in main cast (one year they had two): killed (and turns out to deserve it.)
3. Alive and gets to do stuff - extra with minimal lines, and forgettable.
4. Alive and guest star for one episode - damsel, mother. If they make it past that episode - turned into a femme fatal or monster and dies at some point.
(See Amber Benson and the female fallen angel)

I've watched a lot of genre television in my lifetime, including repeats and re-runs of 1950's-1970's Westerns and Horror Sci-Fi, but no tv series I've seen goes as far as this one. This reminds me a great deal of pulp male noir comics and the flick Fraility with Bill Paxton and Mathew McConaghy. It feels deliberate in the same way those do - in that this is a nightmare verse that women are extensions of men, not individual entities in their own right - which may be why this verse is doomed to implode in on itself.

[elisi]

I've never watched SPN, but there is a very famous vid about the gender thing: Women's Work.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

If IMDB is correct, she is 5 feet exactly. :)

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

And the guy who plays Hoyt is 6'4"!

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Ah, explains why she looks so tiny. Also means Sookie is taller than I thought - I thought she was five foot. And Eric is a heck of a lot taller than I thought. In the books he's close to 7foot.
Here - I'm guessing around 6'5-6'7?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying S3...it's actually more fun than S2 which went overboard with the whole mynaid thing. And a lot better than the books.

The criticism - I read was how women were portrayed and the sexual violence, but it was no worse than the first two seasons. Actually Tara is stronger and more kick-ass in this season than season 2.